Kuching: Coach Tam Iao San was full of praises for his young substitutes who formed most of Macau’s starting line-up as they drew 1-1 against Sri Lanka in their last AFC Solidarity Cup Malaysia 2016 group stage match on Wednesday.
The Lankans, who went into the game with only pride at stake, drew first blood through Kavindu Ishan after just five minutes, only for substitute Choi Weng Hou to level the scores for an understrength Macau with just five minutes remaining.
With Macau already qualified for the semi-finals going into the game, Tam made wholesale changes from their previous match with seven players previously on the bench making the starting line-up against a Sri Lanka side that maintained most of their first XI from the earlier game.
“I gave chances to a lot of my young players to play in this game, so that they can get international exposure,” said Tam. “At first, they panicked a bit when Sri Lanka scored the goal first. The young players were also not confident in keeping the ball in the early phase of the game.
“But during the break, I told them that we had 45 minutes more to play and they should try to be more confident handling the ball and trust their teammates more to build up play.
“Overall, I’m satisfied with the result and with our performance in this game. They made mistakes but these would help them improve. They were not technically and tactically as good as the more mature players, but they will get there.
“There are no promises that these young players will again get on the starting line-up in our semi-final match against Brunei. It depends on their trainings, dedication and commitment. Let’s see what happens next.”
Sri Lanka coach Duddley Steinwell was satisfied with the performance of his team who dominated proceedings in their last game played after two straight losses to Laos and Mongolia in their earlier Group B games.
“At least, we got two goals and one point from this tournament and that is something that we will build up on going forward,” Steinwell said. “We haven’t had an international match in the last 10 months, so this tournament was a good opportunity for us to have continental exposure.
“We played much better tonight than in the earlier matches and we created plenty of chances. I’m happy with experience from the tournament and hope we can improve ourselves with what we have learnt from the matches here.”
